December 25, 2013

Just a little computer simulation

Physicists have devised a new experiment to test if the universe is a computer.

A philosophical thought experiment has long held that it is more likely than not that we're living inside a machine.

The theory basically goes that any civilisation which could evolve to
a 'post-human' stage would almost certainly learn to run simulations on
the scale of a universe. And that given the size of reality - billions
of worlds, around billions of suns - it is fairly likely that if this is
possible, it has already happened.

And if it has? Well, then the statistical likelihood is that we're
located somewhere in that chain of simulations within simulations.